Having built the lovely looking and audience unfriendly new additions to the Play House by renowned, tyrannical architect Philip Johnson, the Board decided to hire someone who would get rid of those of us who had brought the theater to the party. For this purpose, the board, led by Dick Hahn (who was general counsel for BP America, which--parenthetically-- moved its headquarters from Cleveland to Chicago during his tenure), hired the late Josephine Abady. Josie, who just passed away, a victim of brain cancer at 52, in late May of 2002, was more honest about her intentions than the duplicitous Herr Hahn: In the one interview I had with Josie prior to our departure, I brought her a raft of the new plays I had been nurturing in my New Voices/New Directions series so that she might find something of use. I used the opportunity to tell her that she shouldn't overlook some of the talented members of the company, people like Richard Halverson (who was snapped up by Milwaukee Rep), Jimmy Richards (who was snapped up by the Guthrie), etc. I had my television show, and teaching gigs, and was confident that I would land on my feet, so I truly was not trying to save my own job. She glanced at the box of plays I brought her, said she wasn't interested, and told me, and I quote verbatim, "I wouldn't care if Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy were in the company, it's time for a change." Fair enough. I strongly disagreed with the approach--and still disagree with the approach, but there it was. I took my plays and started the Ohio New Play Festival, which in its first and only season got me an Honorable Mention in the Northern Ohio Live Awards.

The following interview appearcd in the Friday Encore Supplement of the Chronicle Telegram...

The players without a program by Shannon Jewell, The Chronicle Telegram April 12, 1988

Since 1915 the Cleveland Play House has been a residen professional acting company--the oldest in the country--relying on the talents of a troupe of actors who signed on for a full season.

These performers were members of Actors' Equity, the professional actors' union and they fromed the nucleus around which a season of plays was built. Others would be "jobbed in" on single-show contracts as needed, with the rep ompany a cohesive, recognizable base.

But...

Things have changed after 73 years.

And although change is necessary to maintain artistic quality, the abruptness of decisions made in this scenario has caused controversy.

Basically the current sutuation dates back to April, 1985 when 14-year Play House artistic director Richard Oberlin resigned amid a lagging box office and a monstrous building campaign.

There had been complaints about play selection and rujors of in-house dissension, along with a drop in the national reputation and artistic level of the three-theater complex.

Resident company actor William Rhys was named resident artistic director, and the talented actor-director tried to introduce a more varied and modern season, including a special series of latin American works, and new faces on stage and behind the scenes--blended with the resident talent.

"We are not just here for the community, but we must be responsible to the entire theatrical network," Rhys said in an Encore interview last fall.

"The Play House has relied too long on being the oldest professional resident company in the country. Obviously that is something good, but the theater has been far too conservative," Rhys said, adding he didn't advocate "change for change's sake."

Now the Play House has a new artistic director in Josephine Abady, who agrees CPH needs to improve its quality and reputation, but seems to advocate "change for change's sake."

Not afraid of controversy, she has raised many a proverbial eyebrow with some major decisions she has made already.

Not the least of those is the abolishment of the resident actors' company and the across-the-board non-renewal of any of the current actors' contracts, probably not evben to be "jobbed in" on a single-show contract next season.

One reason is, she said in an interview for Encore, local Equity actors are "lacking."

"In citywide auditions I did not find the level (of talent) high enough for a city of this size. There's not a real understanding (by the actors) of what is required to be a professional actor," conteded the 38-year-old, for nin years artistic director of the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, Mass.

She said those who auditioned in Cleveland didn't show "a good choice of audition material...the breadth and depth of material was not substantion...and their (acting technique was lacking."

So she plans on "bringing the finest actors, directors, designers and professional support staff to the Play House," hiring primarily from New York.

Those who suddenly find themselves without a theatrical home naturally are upset, but their compolaints center on Abady's approach, not her goals.

That approach includes the wholesale elimination of the established company instead of a blending of "old" and "new" over the next season.

"Now that they have what they call a 'world-class' facility, they want a 'world-class' company. What do they think they've had?" asked CPH alumnus Kenneth L. Albers, now associate artistic director, director and actor at Milwaukee Repertory.

He was back to direct "The Common Pursuit" in the town where he built an admirable theatrical reputation, both at the PLay House and elsewhere.

"I was here in the heyday of a lot of theater. The years I was at the Play House (1974-82) were really good ;years. The productions were good, the programming was solid, the audiences were very responsive," Albers recalled.

"We had eclectic theater at the Play House, classical theater at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Lakewood and new stuff at the ACtors Company (in University Circle)...

"Then two things happened that threw everything out of focus. Great Lakes moved downtown (to the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Sqwuare Center) and the new building was announced for the Play House.

"Part of the success of the theaters had been not having everything you needed. You spent more imagination than money on the productions.

"Great Lakes moved into the Ohio and expectations went up. The new Play House building was announced and the focus shifted to the building and, in effect, away from the artistic standards," Albers said.

The Actors in "The Common Pursuit," long-time company members, agree the focus now seems to be on the box office rather than continuity.

"When I came here this was one of the best theater companies in the country...With a resident company there's always a link from year to year. Now that link has been cut," said James Richards after 15 years acting on Play House stages.

The end of a resident troupe is "happening at a time when American theater is going BACK to a resident company. They have built this monstrous building and now they are impressed by the mortar and the box office. Theater isn't a building or a box office or a season. It's a group of actors," Richards added.

Thomas Q. Fulton Jr., with CPH for about four years, agrees. "Every actor understands the unifying nature of a resident company...There is a team that is formed...

"We practice our craft in a company and don't spend time practicing a career. There's a freedom to take chances that doesn't come with strangers...This is a dissolution of the concept of resident theater."

Morgan Lund, an actor of many years at CPH, said "the basic problem is the theater board rfusing to look at the human side...Maybe that doesn't matter because maybe they don't care...But study a theater and you don't study a building. It's the people inside."

"The people in Cleveland will suffer," Richards predicted. "Instead of
Cleveland setting itself apart, the board has decided to go to New York, have those people there tell us what art is and import it back."

Abady naturallyt disagrees.

"Good theater is one of the greatest things you can have. It's almost like someone fills your soul. As time goes on that experience is less and less thrilling. One thing I want to do here ismake that experience exciting again," she said.

"When this theater was started it probably was really thrilling. But the quality of work and choice of plays have dropped. The people who have been here have a great love for the Play House and a dedication and talent. It will be a real challenge to keep that alive.

"But when this theater was started there weren't any VCR's" which are direct competition for the entertainment dollar now.

So ABady wants to get people to the box office to spend those dollars and into the theater to spend time gbeing entertained, enthralled and perhaps educated.

"It takes $1 million a year to run these spaces before you put a piece of art on the stage. In the years the physical plant was being built, there were not enough resources to keep up the quality of the productions...Will was hampered to some extent by the building program (in his play selection)," she said.

Her objection to a resident company is "the company determines the choice of plays...the season is built around the abilities of the company.

"I do want to open up the opportunity for new (or returning) talent. It's not that we wouldn't cast (the current actors), but if they can't work they will leave town to work somewhere else."

Abady says Cleveland theatrically is known as "a place where are from, not working."

"The immediate goals are to help the Play House enter the vanguard of American theater again and to present a more exciting and varied group of plays.

"I think there is an unprecedented opportunity for growth and I'm looking forward to that challenge."

The local Equity actors, by the wayk, are looking toward new challenges as well.

Wayne S. Turney came to the Play House "to do one show 12 years ago, and I've stayed. I made an investment in the community since. I have a wife and a mortgage here."

Turney is artistic director of a new Equity company which will perform as the Ohio New Play Festival at Lorain County Community College's Stocker Center.

The festival will stage three plays this summer in a six-week schedule, utilizing some members of the Play House resident company.